A review by aggressive_nostalgia
Lies by Michael Grant

I don't know if I can handle three more books of this. Technically, we can all know the basics of how the series will end, so i don't know why we need to take six books to get there. It's horribly depressing. It's an interesting psychological experiment of sorts, as Sam feels his authority is stifled, Astrid wades through her own ethical struggles as she tries to stamp down anarchy, Mary fights to keep her head between her care for the "prees" and her eating disorders as her fifteenth birthday approaches, Howard is sort of all over the place, Orc shows a slight altruistic side, Albert actually seems to be thriving amidst the clamor, and the bad guys all go a little berserk. It's a little bit frightening to see just how adult a city of desperate kids and preteens can become, but I was thankful to see less graphic violence in this installment. However, there were no real new story hooks. A few interesting twists, yes, but we discover next to nothing about the secret behind Little Pete and the FAYZ.



"Lies" was decent, but not as gripping as "Gone" or "Hunger", and unless Grant can move things along here and throw something really interesting into the mix in "Plague"—like more interactions with the parents outside the FAYZ, or some actual explanations—I will likely not stick with the series. This is only halfway through? Really? We have to sit through another fifteen hundred (or more) pages of this warped dystopia?